Heddle frame



Jan. 12, 1937. c. E. A. LAUSBERG 2,067,402

HEDDLE FRAME Filed March 29, 1935 ATTORNEY.

Patented Jan. 12, 1937 UNTED STATES PATENT orange 2 Claims.

In a known type of heddle frame for looms the frame proper, rectangular in form, has supported in its vertical portions or side bars and parallel with its horizontal portions or top and bottom rails a pair of hat heddle-supporting bars, or heddle bars, on which the heddles are strung and which are frequently supported between their ends, to prevent their sagging under the heddle load and limit their motion in a direction through the frame, by hooks or hook-like devices directly or indirectly connected to the frame proper. When the load imposed on the frame is relatively light, als in the' weaving with silk warps, the heddle bars are usually quite thin so that when they have to be disconnected for adding or removing heddles they may be readily bent and also twisted in order to clear them from or engage them with these hooks. But when the load imposed on the frame is heavy, as in the weaving vnth cotton or the like warps, the heddle bars are usually necessarily so thick that while they will respond to bending they do not readily respond to twisting, wherefore instead of using the aforesaid devices as their intermediate supports it has been proposed to use devices including latches or keepers movable thereon into and out of retaining relation with respect to the heddle-bars.

This invention relates to heddle frames having intermediate heddle-bar supporting devices of the latter class and it contemplates certain improvements whereby a sturdy and rigid support for each heddle bar is aorded, the operation of coupling and uncoupling such heddle bar is facilitated and the construction of the said device is rendered simple and inexpensive to manufacture.

In the drawing,

Fig. l is a face view of a heddle frame embodying the improved heddle-bar supporting device;

Figs. 2 and 3 are fragmentary views on a larger scale of the heddle frame seen as in Fig. 1 and showing alternative forms of said device;

Fig. 2a is a section on line 2 2, Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a section on line 4 4, Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view on a still larger scale of what is shown in Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a section on line 6 6, Fig. 5, with the fixed member shown in elevation; and

Fig. 7 is a plan of the blank from which the sliding member is formed.

I designates the side bars and 2 the top and bottom rails of the frame proper, and 3 designates the heddle bars carrying the heddles Il and each penetrating the side bars and held in place under tension by the usual spring clips Ia axed to the side bars and having their ends engaged in holes in the heddle bars. In the present example a type of frame is shown in which the heddle bars are duplicated, a pair being arranged adjacent and parallel with each top and bottom rail. My device for supporting the heddle bars between their, ends, which comprises a fixed member and a sliding member, is constructed as follows:

The xed member includes a shank 5 which may be secured to the rail in either oi known ways, to wit, by threading one end thereof which, when passed through a hole in the rail, is clamped thereto by nuts 6 (Figs. l, 2 and 4) or by threading it as a wood screw 'l which is driven into the rail (Fig. 3) It has a lateral projection 8 to which one edge of the heddle bar, anking the shank, will be presented and it may have in the same plane another such projection 9 to which the opposite edge of the heddle bar will be presented, in which case the two projections form a crotch Illl to receive the heddle bar. If the heddle bars are in pairs, as above assumed, the projections 8 and 9 and crotch I0 will be duplicated at the opposite side of the shank. The projections are thinner than the shank, being here formed as fins. Short of its free end the shank has opposed notches I2.

The sliding member or slide is formed from the elongated sheet metal blank shown in Fig. 7 whose body portion I3 has a central hole I4 and a paid of prongs I5 and a prolongation I6 between them projecting from each of its ends, there being a notch Il left between the prolongation and each prong. The blank is rebent on transverse lines and in one direction through its body portion and both sides of the hole to form the head I8 of the completed slide and then it is bent on other transverse lines and in the other direction through its body portion to form the extremities or" the completed (bifurcated) slide, each extremity shown including a web i9 adjoining the head and a portion I9a extending from such web (and which was in the blank the prolongation I6) appreciably narrower than the web. From the head to its other terminal each extremity is formed part-cylindrical so as to be channeled at the inside and near its lower end it has an inside lug 2B adapted to engage the corresponding notch I2 of the shank and such end is inturned as at 2| to form an abutment. The projection formed by each lateral extremity of each web I9 has, as an incident of the notch I'I, a hook 22 extending toward projection 8, whereby such projections are coactive to hold a heddlebar as shown in Fig. 4.

To assemble the members the iixed member is telescoped into the slide at the end of the latter having the abutments 2| and with the threaded end of the xed member leading and its ns in the plane of the bifurcation-slit existing each side of the device, will be opposite the crotches l0. When the slide stands elevated on the fixed member in the position where its abutments 2l abut the free end of the latter eachrcrotch IB is open to permit entry of the corresponding heddle bar to or its removal from the same; the slide is releasably held in this position by engagement of the abutments 2li in the notches I2. But when the slide is depressed, as shown, so that lugs 2l) underlie said end of the fixed member the hooks 22 will lap therheddle bars if they have been made to occupy the crotches; the slide is releasably held in this position (or against shifting out of heddle-bar locking position) by engagement of abutments 20 with said end of the xed member, which they may however be made to clear by springing outward the somewhat elastic extremities of the slide.

It is not new in these devices. to provide a slide penetrated by the shank of the xed member and one of which is provided with a heddlebar retaining hook, as 22; but in the present instance the slide is also bifurcated and its extremities receive the shank between them and are adapted to confine it to movement only lengthwise of the shank and to be made to coact with the shank in some way, such as is herein indicated, to hold the slide releasably against movement, as when the heddle bar or bars are supposed to be locked in the device.

Since at least one extremity of the slide is channeled at the inside and receives the shank in its channel such channel forms means to confine the shank and said extremities in parallel relation to each other.

Fig. 3 shows that instead of a nut, as 23, to hold the slide in locking position a spring 2li may be interposed between the rail and the slide.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim is:

1. In a heddle frame, the combination of a xed member to be aflixed to a rail of the frame and having a shank and a projection extending laterally from the shank, and a biurcated slide having a lateral projection and being penetrated by and movable along the shank and having the latter between and the first projection extending from between the extremities of its bifurcated portion, said extremities being closely related to and one of them havingan inner channel receiving the shank and one projection having a hook extending toward the other and adapted to lap a heddle bar interposed between the projections.

2. In a heddle frame, the combination of a xed member to be affixed to a rail of the frame and having a shank and a lateral projection,

and a bifurcated slide having a lateral projection and being penetrated by and movable along the shank and having the latter between and the first projection 'extending from between the extremities of its bifurcated portion, one such projection having a hook extending toward the other and adapted to lap a heddle bar interposed between the projections and said extremities being elastic and gripping the shank and the shank and one extremity having a lug and notch interengageable to resist movement of the slide along the shank.

CHARLES E. A. LAUSBERG. 

